From the German translation of a European patent publication with publication number DE 695 20 866 T2, a carrier housing is known for a turbocharger arrangement to be fastened at an internal combustion engine, which is fastened via a fastening section at the internal combustion engine. A first fastening flange is provided, at which a high-pressure turbocharger is mechanically fastened. A second fastening flange at the carrier housing serves for the mechanic fastening of a first low-pressure turbocharger, with a third fastening flange serving for the mechanic fastening of a second low-pressure turbocharger. The carrier housing here allows a mechanical fastening of a turbocharger arrangement at an internal combustion engine, with this allowing a two-step charging process, by both low-pressure turbochargers being switched parallel in reference to each other and being arranged serially with the high-pressure turbocharger, particularly arranged downstream thereof, seen in the direction of flow of the exhaust. Here, particularly for large internal combustion engines, such two-step turbocharger arrangements are preferred with two parallel low-pressure turbochargers, compared to arrangements with only one low-pressure turbocharger, because they can be built smaller and connected to each other in a more compact fashion than a single, comparatively large low-pressure turbocharger.
At the carrier housing of prior art, the turbochargers are arranged such that they are supplied with exhaust via separated line sections, extending at least sectionally inside the housing. The carrier housing therefore represents only a type of mechanical cover for the turbocharger arrangement, which itself serves no exhaust guidance but instead accepts additional guidance elements for this purpose, which must be guided separately out of said housing. This way, the carrier housing of prior art requires a relatively large structural space and cannot be arranged at the internal combustion engine in an optimally space-saving fashion. Furthermore, it shows a relatively high weight, which is even further increased by the additional pipeline sections for guiding the exhaust.